Did people forget gas stations are no smoking?

[dainthomas]

Mythbuster is (are?) your friend. They threw a cigarette in a puddle of gasoline and exactly nothing happened.

 

[Greenman]

You are completely full of shit. A cigarette is not going to ignite diesel. I use diesel all the time for starting fires. Burns nice and hot, and not too quickly, allowing green wood enough time to get a good fire going. Alternatively, I use used motor oil mixed with gasoline, but that's a little too smoky. The firemen around here use diesel when starting controlled burns. Reason: Diesel doesn't "blow up." Gasoline blows up when in the right air/fuel ratio. A cell phone is NOT going to ignite diesel fumes, nor is it going to ignite gasoline fumes. A lit cigarette poses a minimal risk (10's if not 100's of thousands, or even millions of people fuel up each day while smoking, yet fires cause by the lit cigarette (as opposed to lighting it) are quite rare) *Lighting* a cigarette where there's an open flame poses a far greater risk, else a static spark right by the gas nozzle where vapors are more likely to be in the correct ratio with air to ignite. Most of the air surrounding the gas station has zero risk of ignition. You could walk around with a giant lit torch and not ignite anything, so long as you stayed a foot or so away from the nozzles.

The argument about vapors being too concentrated near the surface of the gasoline - uhh, how did the cigarette get there? Teleportation? It would ahve to go through an area where the concentration poses an ignition hazard.

edit: You can get diesel to "blow up", but it requires a pressure through a small orifice to create a very fine spray.

This is the definitive answer. It's pretty tough to ignite gas without an open flame or electric spark.

 

[alkemyst]

Isn't it death threats you are thinking of?

no, a threat is saying "I am going to kill you" a wish is "I hope you die"

try www.hop.com.

 

[alkemyst]

Mythbuster is (are?) your friend. They threw a cigarette in a puddle of gasoline and exactly nothing happened.

try this. Put that same gas in a container, leave about 25-50% volume as air. Let it sit outside in the sun. Put a lit cigarette next to the opening as you open it.

Probably won't post back for a while if you follow those steps.

 

[DaTT]

no, a threat is saying "I am going to kill you" a wish is "I hope you die"

try www.hop.com.

Actually, I was referring to the forum rules comment about death "wishes" being against the rules, but if you weren't too busy trying to be a dick at every possible moment, you may have figured that out.

 

[yhelothar]

Dunno where you're from but here in so cal, I've never seen anyone dumb enough to smoke at the pump.

 

[Nintendesert]

The Cell Phone bit at gas stations is completely misguided and an urban myth. Just like Cell Phones can cook eggs or cause cancer.

 

[novasatori]

The Cell Phone bit at gas stations is completely misguided and an urban myth. Just like Cell Phones can cook eggs or cause cancer.

Tell me about it I tried to cook eggs on my iphone and it didn't work.

HTC Evo worked though. I think its the antenna on the iphone.

 

[StrangerGuy]

The Cell Phone bit at gas stations is completely misguided and an urban myth. Just like Cell Phones can cook eggs or cause cancer.

Just FYI cell phones and other consumer electronics are banned when I worked for a brief time in a oil refining complex. Not because of the EM radiation (we have "explosion-proof" walkie-talkies) but rather the potential electrical sparks they can cause.

 

[alkemyst]

Actually, I was referring to the forum rules comment about death "wishes" being against the rules, but if you weren't too busy trying to be a dick at every possible moment, you may have figured that out.

How about hush up next time and let the adults talk next time you are trying to figure out what I meant?

 

[DrPizza]

Cell phones - sparks? What sparks? Seems that the 10's of billions of trials with this "experiment" have resulted in no explosions.

And again, Alkemyst - in the scenario you suggested - gasoline, a certain volume of air - the potential for the gasoline vapors to ignite from the cigarette is real, but still very very small. However, at least your scenario comes closest to the "most likely" case - the vapors are warmer. But still, you'll need to have just the right amount of air space in that tank. Too rich of a mixture and it won't ignite easily. Think about how incredibly difficult it would be to engineer an internal combustion engine - a spark from the spark plug would never be necessary as the temperature in the cylinder exceeds the temperature on the surface of a cigarette butt. This does happen occasionally in engines though, but the gasses are also under compression at that point.

 

[Greenman]

try this. Put that same gas in a container, leave about 25-50% volume as air. Let it sit outside in the sun. Put a lit cigarette next to the opening as you open it.

Probably won't post back for a while if you follow those steps.

Only because he'll get high from gas fumes. I know it's hard let go of a preconceived idea, but you're wrong, get over it.

 

[feralkid]

I don't think it's likely anyone will be putting up signs that say "No smoking, unless your cig is already lit, then it is considered safe, according to Adam & Jamie".

 

[Cogman]

Cell phones being dangerous at a gas station? Lol. Yeah.... Is the WiFi dangerous as well (even though it is at the wrong frequency to heat gas)

So long as you aren't removing your cell phone battery and shorting it over a stream of gas that you are dumping on the ground, you are pretty safe nothing is going to happen. Electronic devices that spark internally tend not to work (with the exception of devices that are specifically designed TO spark.)

When was the last time you saw rampant sparks in your computer? Never?



While I think it is stupid to do, lighting a cigarette at a gas station is really pretty safe as well. The fume concentration generally is not high enough to cause combustion.

 

[xanis]

Try not to worry about it. Hopefully Darwin will take care of them soon.

 

[Elias824]

Ohhhh natural selection, how awesome you are.

 

[DivideBYZero]

A burning cigarette isn't hot enough to light gas on fire. I've thrown a lit cigarette in a container of gas before and it just went out. I always smoke by the pump. Now if you see someone lighting a cigarette while pumping. Thats a problem.

LOL @ u

 

[Bateluer]

Dunno where you're from but here in so cal, I've never seen anyone dumb enough to smoke at the pump.

And they don't get much dumber than So Cal.

 

[Modelworks]

It is beyond stupid to smoke around gasoline. A cigarette is between 700 and 1200°F . The flash point for gasoline is 500-860°F .

If it is a hot day, the gas will also be warmer making it even more likely. Someone pulls out the nozzle from filling a car, the gas hits the hot metal on the car, vaporizes and ignites.

 

[Modelworks]

Cell phones being dangerous at a gas station?

Someone filling a container with gas for their lawn mower spills some gas on the pavement. A passenger gets out of their car and drops their cell phone, it hits the pavement , cracks the screen and generates a spark.

When people become comfortable around dangerous things is when accidents happen. People tend to think like , they refill their car everyday, they haven't been hurt before, surely those warning signs are used because they have to be, there is no real danger .

 

[Modelworks]

Mythbuster is (are?) your friend. They threw a cigarette in a puddle of gasoline and exactly nothing happened.

Pour a little gasoline in a 5 gallon bucket and then toss in the cigarette and see what happens.

 

[Number1]

How about hush up next time and let the adults talk next time you are trying to figure out what I meant?

Why do you always have to be such a dick head?

DIAWC
If you don't know what DIAWC means, here is the illustrated version.

Just guess what I want you to do with it...

 

[Cogman]

Someone filling a container with gas for their lawn mower spills some gas on the pavement. A passenger gets out of their car and drops their cell phone, it hits the pavement , cracks the screen and generates a spark.

When people become comfortable around dangerous things is when accidents happen. People tend to think like , they refill their car everyday, they haven't been hurt before, surely those warning signs are used because they have to be, there is no real danger .

When was the last time you saw a Cellphone screen spark, crack, or shatter?

I've seen a lot of cellphone screens take some pretty nasty hits, and never a spark out of one of them. Mostly they just create nice spidery ink patterns. Even dropping a cellphone is usually not enough to completely break it.

Not only that, but the screen (where the sparking would potentially happen) is surrounded by a plastic encasing. Any spark would be fast, but also unexposed to gas fumes. Even if the crack was big enough for gas fumes to enter, the spark would happen before the crack formed or any gas molecules would have a chance to enter the system.

Like I said earlier, short of removing your cellphone battery, spilling gas all over the ground, and shorting out the battery with a wire, the chances of a cellphone starting an explosion are someone in the range of 0% and 0.00000000000000000000001%

 

[alkemyst]

Only because he'll get high from gas fumes. I know it's hard let go of a preconceived idea, but you're wrong, get over it.

I suggest you try it then.

 

[alkemyst]

Why do you always have to be such a dick head?

DIAWC
If you don't know what DIAWC means, here is the illustrated version.

Just guess what I want you to do with it...

dude shutup.